Eight Dragons turned out at Aldeburgh Yacht Club this last weekend for a three-day event for the Aldeburgh Dragon Open, BDA Vintage trophy and leg 2 of the East Coast windward/leeward series on what turned out to be the hottest June day in Suffolk. 

Three visiting boats from the Medway (Whistle GBR560, Hands Off GBR760 and Taniwha GBR823) joined five home Aldeburgh boats.  The plan was for three races on Friday and Saturday and two on the Sunday. 

At the briefing on Friday, the breeze was proving very light and concerning, but as the crews got out to the boats a dominant sea breeze filled in at 10 – 12 kts straight up the river allowing PRO Patrick Gifford and his team to set the start line some 500m from the moorings giving a ¾ mile beat on a true windward leeward course down river. 

Three roughly 45-minute races were closely fought with much position changing on both the up and downwind legs.  The first leg of the first day saw difficulty for Andy Moss, who arrived at the spreader mark and found it a little closer than expected or intended to the mud, forcing the rest of the fleet to thread the needle between the mark and Hands Off. Friday places were dominated by Quentin Strauss in Whistle, who scored 2 firsts and a third, followed up by Rick Gillingham’s Navaho 764 and Andy Moss in Hands Off 760.

Saturday morning provided another very consistent wind – 8 to 10 kts with a little more east in it. Patrick took the fleet another mile down the river and again set a windward-leeward course for three more races where the tide and shallow water played a bit into tactics.   Whistle and Navaho dominated again, managing consistent results with a 1,2,3 each, with Tim Hannon, Basilisk 515, managing to find some speed and tactics to take a 1,2,5.  In all the races again there was frequent position changing right through the fleet with competition still very hot on the water. Saturday evening saw a supper hosted by the club for most of the competitors.

Sunday saw an earlier start time of 10am, As the boats headed down the start area, the breeze was freshening the whole time and fairly consistently about 20kts with some prolonged gusts of 24kts. Two boats had taken the decision not to race through injury and wind strength, leaving six starters.  Patrick again set a fair windward-leeward course of three rounds.  The racing was tough in a strong breeze with boat handling really tested, with frequent position changing on each leg.  Whistle again dominated the results with two wins; Basilisk scored a 2nd and a 3rd. Navaho got a 3rd and 4th, and Hands Off a 4th and a 2nd (just beating Basilisk on the line by about 500mm courtesy of a torn genoa)

The return to the club saw the visitors quickly craned out and put in trailers, followed by the prize-giving.  It was great to manage to fit eight races into three days with a broad variety of conditions.

Class Captain, Tim

Images: Fleur Hayles fleurhayles.myportfolio.com/2026-dragon-open

Aldeburgh Dragon Open and BDA Vintage Dragon Championship

Click here to view the overall Vintage Dragon Championship results.